Screen Out Online Liars

Study the mug shot

Beware the Mila Kunis look-alike. Her photograph is the one element of her profile she's most likely to misrepresent. Rule of thumb: Tack on an extra 8 1/2 pounds to her frame; that's probably closer to accurate, according to a study by Toma. And if she has only one photo, especially if it's a head shot, she's more likely to be fudging.

Assess her vitals

Women rarely lie about income, age, education, children, smoking, or alcohol consumption. But if the site provides choices—"social drinker," say—she'll probably choose the more flattering one.

Read Between the Lines

The only multiple-choice item she may blatantly lie about is body type. If she leaves blanks, it may suggest (a) she doesn't want to lie but doesn't want to reveal the truth either, (b) she wants to seem mysterious, or (c) she's not that invested in online dating.

Watch her language

If she avoids words like "I," "me," or "my," she may have embedded fibs into her description—whether the topic is hobbies, career, or her ideal mate. This one is subconscious: The less she references herself, the more she can distance herself from guilt about lying. Similarly, a surplus of negation words ("not," "no," "never") may be a subconscious effort to disconnect from deception.

Find her focus

Does she curiously avoid one topic, like exercise or her job? Online daters tend to steer clear of topics they lied about in the profile's multiple-choice questions, and then compensate by overemphasizing things they were truthful about. (If she lied about her career, for example, she may avoid mentioning colleagues and go on and on about her pets.)

Short isn't sweet

An unusually brief profile could be a warning sign that she may be hiding deeper secrets. That's because a fibber tends to keep self-disclosure to a minimum. She doesn't want to have to keep track of any elaborate falsehoods in the event you two actually meet up in person.